David Letterman rips on McCain for canceling appearance to talk to Couric

John McCain was scheduled to appear on Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night, but citing his suspension of his campaign to focus on the economic issues being discussed on Capitol Hill, he cancelled the appearance.  Letterman took a personal call a few hours before showtime from McCain saying he wouldn’t be attending because he was rushing back to DC immediately. The talk show host made his feelings about McCain’s last minute cancellation clear after first praising the Senator as a war hero.

Praises McCain as a war hero
David Letterman talked at length about John McCains hero status in his monologue, making it clear that he has the utmost respect for the Senator and the wartime adversities he experienced.  He called him a true hero, going as far as to say he felt that McCain was the only true hero he has ever known. 

“We always like having the Senator on the program.  Here’s a guy, by the way, I have nothing but the highest regard for the this man because a true American hero, and as Bill Clinton said the other night, gave everything but his life for America during the Vietnam war and we’re in sorry need and short supply of actual heroes like John McCain.”

[Transcribed from video of The Late Show, 9/24/08]

Letterman asks why Sarah Palin didn’t show up instead when McCain canceled
He added, however, that “When you call up at the last minute and you cancel a show… this is not the John McCain I know.”

He went on to point out that the Vice President’s job is to serve when the President cannot.

“But here’s what you do when you’re running for campaign in the middle of an economic crisis…  You’re a fourth term senator… you go back to Washington, you handle what you need to handle.  Don’t suspend your campaign.  You let your campaign go on shouldered by your vice-presidential nominee, that’s what you do… You say ‘I gotta get back to Washington to save this country!’  Good for you!  ’And while I’m gone, campaigning in my stead will be my great running mate from the state of Alaska, Sarah Palin.’ And she comes out and campaigns.  What happened there?  What’s the problem?  Where is she?  Why isn’t she doing that?  Something has gotten to him.  This doesn’t smell right.  This is not the way a tested hero behaves.”

[Transcribed from video of The Late Show, 9/24/08]

The much longer than normal monologue was, of course, peppered with Letterman’s usual humor, but he legitimized his point in all seriousness, too.

On short notice, Letterman got MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann to fill the segment vacated by McCain.  They speculated on the McCain camp’s intention as to why he wants to postpone this Friday’s Presidential debate with Barack Obama.  Olbermann, an outspoken and vigilant GOP critic, surmises that since it’s so difficult to reschedule a debate, one of the scheduled debates would be cancelled… likely suggested to be the vice-presidential debate.

McCain told Letterman he had to go to Washington, did interview with Kate Couric instead
When returning from commercial during the Olbermann segment, Letterman was informed that John McCain was three blocks away in another CBS studio sitting in a live interview with Katie Couric.  Cutting to the live feed, Letterman commented that McCain didn’t seem to be “racing to the airport.”  He asked Olbermann if he thought it was McCain’s fault that he had cancelled on Letterman, or CBS got ahold of him and said he had to come in and do the Couric interview. 

Olbermann responded, “I would be speculating, there’s very little done in that campaign without his knowledge.  I think he dissed you.”

Letterman opened the second half of the show with a joke, saying “We’re told now that the Senator has concluded his interview with Katie Couric and he’s now on Rachael Ray’s show making veal picatta.” 

Transcribed clip in shortened segments from Breitbart.com.

I strongly recommend watching the video above, if possible, to hear everything David Letterman said and all comments in context.

Note by Celebitchy: Unfortunately Redlasso is still inaccessible due to legal action by the networks and we could not watch the show in full online. I would have liked to see the rest of Olbermann’s interview.

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